Why Quentin Tarantino Is Batshit Crazy Insane

I’m a firm believer that many geniuses are partly mad.  History bares this out.  Michelangelo rarely changed his clothes and walked away from conversations mid-sentence.  Famous Japanese author Yukio Mushima stormed the Japanese defense headquarters with the intention of overthrowing the government.  Guess what he did it with?  Four teenaged boys and a sword.  One sword.  And four teenagers.  Pythagoras the famous Greek mathematician founded his own religion where one of the tenets was that beans were evil.  Yes, genius and madness often go hand in hand.

This goes double for Quentin Tarantino.  Not only is he one of the most stylistically innovative filmmakers ever, he’s also literally a genius with a 160 IQ.  In addition, Tarantino is a high school dropout whose first job was collecting change from nudie magazine machines.  Pornographic change collector profession aside, from Reservoir Dogs to Pulp Fiction to Django Unchained, Tarantino has literally changed the face of film.  He’s also quite possibly the best writer of movie dialogue ever.  Not surprisingly his latest film, The Hateful Eight, is garnering all kinds of critical acclaim.  (You can read Gfunk’s review right here.:https://houseofgeekery.com/2015/12/22/movie-review-the-hateful-eight/)

Tarantino is meticulous, enthusiastic, and dedicated to his actors.

He also has a fascination with women’s feet and kept the “Pussy Wagon” truck from Kill Bill Vol. 1 for, well, no apparent reason.

Quentin Tarantino is also unquestioningly, positively, absolutely, certifiably batshit crazy insane.

“Show your work” was a phase my teachers used a lot in high school math. With the advent of Twitter and the claims of certain Presidential candidates (*cough cough* Donald Trump *cough cough*) that phrase has once again become prevalent in our culture.  It’s one thing to make the claim that someone is crazy, it’s another thing to back it up with evidence.  Fortunately with Quentin Tarantino there’s plenty of evidence.

Like a lot of artistic talents Tarantino tends to be oversensitive.  A case in point occurred in 1997 at the Oscars.  Date Mira Sorvino began talking to a reporter when QT noticed and began screaming at her to get back because it was a journalist who wrote an unfavorable story about his father.  A screaming match ensued that resulted in…wait for it…Tarantino hocking a loogie on said reporter.  Yeah that’s not the actions of a three-year old at all. There was a slight problem however.  The journalist in question was not the person who wrote the story.  Oops.

 

 

Fans of Quentin Tarantino’s work know that violence, often times extreme violence, plays a huge role in his films.  After all this is a guy who famously had Michael Madsen cut off a dude’s ear while dancing to “Stuck In the Middle With You” and had a main character in another film scar Nazis with swastikas on their foreheads.  A Tarantino film without violence is like a Lord of the Rings film without elves.

Something that tends to go hand in hand with violent films is the claim that violent films cause violent behavior.  The same arguments have been made for video games, books, etc.  Frankly that stance is horseshit and one that I’ll never accept.  There’s virtually no evidence supporting this.  I’ve seen thousands of violent acts in my life on-screen and the idea of shooting someone with a gun is anathema to me.  Despite this, conservative groups continue to contest that films like Quentin Tarantino’s create violence, particularly in children.  Again, I’m a firm believer in personal responsibility.  If you don’t want your child to watch something, change the fucking channel.

Apparently Quentin Tarantino agrees, albeit slightly more passionately than me, as this interview from 2003 regarding Kill Bill Vol. 1 shows:

Again sensitive.

Tarantino’s regarded highly for his screenwriting, maybe even moreso than his directing.  After all the guy has won two Oscars for screenplays (Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained).  True Romance for example was an amazing film that Tarantino wrote but didn’t direct.  One thing I was not aware of when researching this article was that Tarantino wrote the original script for Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers.  Tarantino wasn’t a fan of the reworks however and demanded to have his name taken off the script, which it eventually was.  However, producer Don Murphy came to believe that Tarantino was actually trying to sabotage the film and called him a “hack.” So obviously the next step was to smooth things out through a nice game of bowling and some nachos.

Not so much.

Tarantino chose instead to confront Murphy at a restaurant and start punching him.  Harvey Weinstein, no paragon of serenity in the movie industry himself, broke up the fight.  Said fight resulted in Murphy suing Tarantino for $5 million after QT said on television he “bitch slapped” Murphy.  Quentin apparently doesn’t subscribe to the “sticks and stones” concept about words.

The director’s insanity isn’t limited to mere insults however.  Coffee can play a factor too.  Well, sort of.  Apparently, Tarantino was visiting the home of Terrence and Philip up north and had popped into what I can only presume was a Tim Horton’s to grab a cup of Joe.  Upon exiting the coffee shop he ran into a paparazzi and requested vehemently that he lower his camera.  Not surprisingly (otherwise why would I be mentioning this?) the pap did not comply.  Rather than walking away from the situation like a rational man, Tarantino channeled his inner Po and went Kung Fu Panda on the guy.  Yup that’s right.  He directed a full on karate kick at the pap that would make Jackie Chan cringe.  Bruce Lee Quentin Tarantino is not.

Which leads us to my final piece of evidence that proves that Tarantino is madder than a mosquito in a mannequin factory.  Actually this incident suggests both people involved are nuts.  During a cab ride several years ago the cab driver made a crack about a woman Tarantino was dating.  Since you have probably sensed the pattern I’ve been establishing over the last few paragraphs, you can guess what happened next.  Tarantino again picked a fight which resulted in…nipple biting.  After punching the cabbie, the cabbie retaliated by biting Tarantino right in the manboob.  I’m quoting my Father here when I say, “You can’t make this shit up.”

Like many movie fans I’ve often thought about what actors, actresses, and filmmakers I’d like to have dinner with.  At one time I thought Quentin Tarantino would be one but based on the evidence, I’d prefer to keep my distance.  Not that I don’t respect his genius and the conversation would probably be fascinating, I just would fear for my safety.  If I’m going to get a roundhouse kick to the face I want it to be from Chuck Norris.

It’s funny, QT staunchly defends the violence in his films, claiming they don’t cause violence.  Yet I just spent the majority of this article describing instances where Tarantino was extremely violent.  I don’t know.  Maybe there’s something to be said about violent movies causing violent behavior.

Maybe Quentin Tarantino just watched The Three Stooges too much as a kid.

 

You can follow me on Twitter as Darth Gandalf at @DarthGandalf1